Isaiah 14

Wesley: Chuse—will renew his choice of them; for he had rejected them. Compassion on Jacob; Israel set in their own land; sojourners join and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

He had rejected them in the exile; he renews the choice. The mercy is an earnest word over Jacob’s return.

Calvin: God will destroy Babylon, because he will have compassion on Israel, whom he cannot despise or reject. All things are directed so that those whom he has elected may be saved. Election is eternal; he never repents of his choice. When he chastises his people, this has the appearance of rejecting them; he is said to choose when he confirms his election.

Compassion is why Babylon falls. The“yet choose” is God making adoption visible after the exile looked like casting off.

Wesley: Rule—which they literally did, after their return into their own land. But this was more eminently verified in a spiritual sense, in the days of the gospel. Peoples bring them home; captors become captives in the LORD’s land.

Application: the literal return is true; the gospel sense is further.

Calvin: the return from Babylon was only a slight foretaste of those things accomplished by Christ. Foreign nations become willing companions and even servants. These statements must be referred to the dominion and yoke of Christ, not to a government of an outward nature, such as the Jews falsely imagine. He also hears the calling of the Gentiles, the two peoples one body.

Israel possesses them in the LORD’s land because Christ subdues the nations by the word. Shared: captors become captives.

Wesley is silent on this verse; nearest: they return to their own land, and the taunt waits until rest is given. Pain, turmoil, hard service: the Babylonian yoke, not a modern labor slogan.

Rest is given so they can take up the song. The hard service was not in doubt. Hear it as mercy after exile.

Calvin: he adds a confirmation of the former promises. By a variety of expressions he removes doubt. He expressly mentions the yoke and bondage, that they might know the Lord would take away these obstructions whenever he pleased. He also hears a further application: God can take away any hard yoke, even the bondage he names under Antichrist.

Rest from pain is the Lord’s gift, not luck. The deliverance of Israel is the pattern; Calvin’s further word does not move the verse off Babylon’s yoke.

Wesley: Golden city—as they used to call themselves; which therefore he expresses here in a word of their own language. The taunt is against the king of Babylon, and say, How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased.

Application: shared: this mashal is aimed at Babylon’s king, not at a modern tyrant. The song is the taunt already begun against that king.

Calvin: the term mashal denotes sayings weighty and remarkable. How throws it into astonishment and ridicule. It might be thought incredible that Babylon, so furnished, should be overturned. The ruin will become a proverb. He hears the city covetous of gold. The saying is against the king of Babylon.

The taunt is the Lord’s gift after rest. The oppressor named here is that king.

Wesley is silent on this verse; nearest: the golden city ceased, the oppressor’s staff is done. The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers—Babylon’s, not a modern state’s.

Application: the broken staff is judgment. The warning was a serious call while the scepter still struck.

Calvin: it did not happen at random or through the blind violence of fortune. The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked and the sceptre of the rulers. No imperial power can support unjust tyranny. Ascribe it to the providence of God, not to chance.

The LORD breaks what he allowed for a time. Wicked rule is not self-securing.

Wesley: Anger—with rigour and not with clemency. None—neither the Babylonians themselves, nor their confederates. Unceasing blows, unrelenting persecution: that king’s manner against the nations.

The wrath was chosen cruelty under a scepter. The warning stood. Do not copy the blows; do not aim them at a living people.

Calvin: the people had been struck with an incurable stroke; there was no limit to the violence; they had rioted with impunity in unbounded licentiousness. God will not spare tyrants, though he wink at them for a time. The same destruction awaits them as befell Babylon.

Unrelenting persecution meets a righteous Judge. The LORD who broke the staff had seen the blows.

Wesley: The earth—the subjects of that vast empire, who groaned under their cruel bondage. They break forth into singing because the oppressor has ceased.

Rest and quiet are for those who groaned. Singing is relief, not a slogan.

Calvin: tyrants are hated by the whole world. When they are dead or ruined, all men break forth into joy, and express the feelings they formerly entertained and dissembled through fear. Then do their hatred and spite burst forth.

The whole earth at rest is the Lord’s doing. Secret groans were heard. The earth sings because Babylon’s king is down.

Wesley: The trees—which were felled for the service of her pride and luxury, but now are suffered to stand. Cypresses and cedars of Lebanon: no lumberjack has come up against us.

Lebanon’s timber served Babylon’s pride. The trees’ joy is poetry for a halt in the cutting, not a chart of another age.

Calvin: even the dumb creatures, the fir-trees and the cedars, congratulate themselves. Personification: since the tyrant is dead, they will now stand gladly and at ease. The Heavenly Judge cannot endure tyrants; though unhappy men are silent under their sway, the Lord listens to their secret groans.

Application: no woodcutter because the LORD laid the king low.

Wesley: Thrones—from their graves, which he seems to call their thrones by way of irony: the only thrones now left to them. Thrones both paved and covered with worms, instead of their former thrones, adorned with gold and precious stones. Sheol is stirred to meet the king of Babylon.

The shades are dead kings greeting Babylon’s king. The taunt already begun is still against that monarch.

Calvin: as he had attributed gladness to the trees, so by a similar figure he attributes speech to the dead. The whole passage is ironical. At the approach of kings the people tremble; here the dead go forth to meet this tyrant with such honor as he deserves. Not only the living but the dead will rejoice at his death.

Sheol stirred is mock ceremony for Babylon’s king. Held in common: the oppressor is brought down to Sheol. Calvin and Wesley both hear the king.

Wesley is silent on this verse; nearest: thrones of graves and worms; the shades greet the king. “You also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us!” The mighty king is leveled with dead men.

Weakness is the punch of the taunt.

Calvin: these are taunts with which the dead jeer the tyrant who has joined them. Tyrants are blinded by their greatness and do not think that they are mortal; they even make themselves to be half-gods. After death it is made known they shared the condition of all mortals. Art thou become like unto us?

Death acknowledges how small the king is. Neither side disputes this: “like us” is Sheol’s greeting to the king of Babylon. Calvin’s half-gods is that king’s pride under the grave.

Wesley: Thy pomp—all thy glory is buried with thee. Viols—all thy musical instruments, which were much used in Babylon, and were doubtless used in Belshazzar’s solemn feasts, at which time the city was taken; to which possibly the prophet here alludes. The worm—instead of those stately carpets upon which thou didst frequently tread.

Maggots for a bed, worms for covers: the king of Babylon’s end. Belshazzar’s feast is Wesley’s hook. Pomp is buried with him.

Calvin: he mentions royal pomp that the change may be more attentively considered. That pomp could not prevent him from being reduced to the same level with other men. Musical instruments: the luxuries that cause kings to forget death. The dead say jestingly: the worms serve thee for tapestry, and the worm for a coverlet. Foolish confidence of men who, intoxicated with enjoyments, forget themselves.

Pomp brought down to Sheol is the Lord’s doing. The oppressor is brought down to Sheol. Worms are the coverlet of that king.